Doctors’ forum warns of protest against ECI over elderly, sick summoned to SIR hearings

The Service Doctors' Forum, a prominent association of medical practitioners in West Bengal, has sounded the clarion call for a major protest against the Election Commission of India (ECI), decrying what it terms the “harassment” of elderly and ailing citizens summoned to attend hearings on claims and objections related to the draft voters’ list.

The forum, which previously spearheaded a powerful movement following the shocking rape and murder of a junior doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024, now turns its gaze to what it sees as a grave civic injustice.

Sources say the organisation plans to launch its New Year movement to highlight the plight of senior citizens and the sick, many of whom have been compelled to journey long distances and wait in exhausting queues simply to comply with ECI directives.

Despite the commission’s recent instruction that individuals over 85 should be heard at their homes, implementation has been patchy, forcing even the frailest elderly and critically ill patients to appear in person. Physically challenged individuals and essential healthcare workers have similarly been called to hearings, straining both personal well-being and public health services.

A Forum member lamented, “Even in wartime, exemptions are made for the critically ill, the elderly, the physically challenged, and essential service providers like doctors. Yet the SIR process shows no such compassion. We have formally urged the chief election commissioner to correct this inhumane oversight. Should nothing change, we will have no choice but to mobilise our movement.”

As the state steps into the New Year, the Service Doctors' Forum’s impending agitation promises to cast a spotlight on the intersection of civic duty and human dignity, demanding that electoral processes serve the people, not burden them.

With IANS inputs